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May 29, 2002

Mr. Bush outdoes himselfPosted by Teresa at 10:40 AM *

I wouldn’t have believed this story, but it’s in CNN’s own transcription of the Crossfire that aired on May 28th, and the person who said it was James Carville, who is nobody’s fool:

CARVILLE: Now it’s time for a look at those unusual, interesting, and downright shocking stories that you might not find anywhere but in our CROSSFIRE news alert. In case you think we Democrats are too tough on George Bush, I assure you, we usually have good reasons. Listen to this. The German magazine, “Der Spiegel” reports that during last week’s European summit, Mr. Bush asked Brazil’s president, “Do you have blacks, too?” “Der Spiegel” says National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had to quickly explain that Brazil probably has a larger black population than the U.S., and perhaps the largest black population outside of Africa.

If the question is open, I want to put up a picture of Pele. He’s the man on the right, and perhaps the most famous Brazilian of all time, at one time the most famous human on the planet. He sure looks black to me. Well, maybe he’s been in the sun too long. Mr. President, I don’t know.

The rest of the world knows that man is a laughingstock. It’s embarrassing. (And Lydy, thanks for the link.)

Clark, I don't have more than a smattering of German, but that looks to me like the original of Carville's story, and I get the impression that Carville's version is a straight translation of it. Would that be correct?

I can usually do okay rounding off edges and emphasizing contrasts in a Babelfish translation for flavour. For this passage the Bobelfish produces:

Bush his Colleague with a Question astonishes, "Do you have Blacks, too?"

Rice (47) -- she remarking was, how astonished the Brazilianer by the Question was, rescuing was the Situation, inthat she Bush cleared up [on this point]: "Mr President, Brazil has probably more Blacks than the USA, they say, it is the Country with the most Blacks outside of Africa."